


Mirror Mirror

by adarkwintersday



Series: Hide Those Ears [1]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Episode: s02e10 Mirror Mirror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 08:50:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7751119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adarkwintersday/pseuds/adarkwintersday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meanwhile, back on the Enterprise we know and love...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mirror Mirror

_It is’t the Captain._

 

From the moment he lays eyes on him - summoned from the bridge by an alarmed transporter-room crew - Spock is quite sure of it.  There’s a subtle but unmistakable _wrongness_ about him.  A swagger in his step, and a cunning in his smile.  Something flickering, and paranoid, about the movements of his eyes.

 

And when he speaks it is not with the cadence of the Captain’s voice. 

 

‘ _Spock_.  What the hell is this?  Where are we?  Where’s your _beard_?’    

 

Spock would find it fascinating, if he were not so worried.  But if this swaggering puppet-Captain has beamed up from the planet - then the real Captain has somehow been mislaid.

 

‘Is this _mutiny?_   You wouldn’t, Spock.  Not you.  _You couldn’t_.’

 

The puppet-Captain advances on Spock, with a peculiar light in his eyes.  He steps in close - much, _much_ too close.  And takes Spock’s face between his hands.

 

‘I like it,’ he says.  ‘The clean-shaven look.  Maybe not very _warrior-like_.  But it accentuates those cheekbones.’

 

And then he - 

 

He _actually_ - 

 

Spock is so utterly stunned that it’s a whole 6.25 seconds before he pushes the Captain off.  The _puppet_ -Captain, who steps back, and looks at him with astonishment in his eyes.  

 

‘ _Not Spock_ ,’ he says softly.  ‘Like everything here.  So alike - and yet _not…_ ’

 

Spock comes to his senses.

 

‘Mr Chekov.  Arrest them.’  His voice is as calm as he knows how to make it.  ‘These men are imposters.’    

 

 

~

 

 

The Halkans are one of the most peaceful peoples in the known universe.  _Only the Captain_ , thinks Spock, could beam down to Halka on a diplomatic mission, and fail to come back perfectly safe.  

 

He is of course being entirely irrational.  For one thing, Lieutenant Uhura, Mr Scott, and Doctor McCoy are also missing.  

 

Spock should be as concerned for their wellbeing as he is for the Captain’s.  

 

But it is currently quite difficult to be logical.

 

The day so far has been rather trying.  

 

 

~

 

 

‘Well _that_ ,’ says Mr Chekov, ‘I never expected to see.’

‘You _didn’t_?’

‘Well - no.’

‘Pav - ’ says Sulu, cautiously.  

‘Yes?’

Sulu meets his friend’s naive brown eyes.  And sighs.

‘Nothing.  Let’s get back to the bridge.’

 

Although they were thrown together by circumstance, Sulu has become fond of Chekov.  They are about the same age, after all - and both grew up on Earth.  

 

But Sulu grew up in the sophisticated, crumbling old metropolis of San Franscico - whereas Pavel grew up in one of those shiny, sanitised New Russia settlements.  Sulu’s background, he is aware, means that in some ways he is better prepared for space, and its  _new frontiers_.   

 

But Pav has been a member of the bridge crew for several months.  And how he could _possibly_ have failed to notice… 

 

 _Not now_ , says Sulu to himself.  There are a lot of other things going on.  

 

Now is probably not the time to introduce the concept of _inter-planetary_ _sex_ to Mr Chekov.

 

 

~

 

 

Within the space of an afternoon, the strange _mirror_ landing party escape from the brig three times.  They exhibit, Spock notes, a fascinating combination of utter ruthlessness, and animal cunning.  Three _Enterprise_ men are already in Sick Bay, in critical condition, before Spock has them all sealed in isolation rooms, with maximum security fields.

 

When the Captain gets back from the mirror universe, he’ll tell his First Officer he made a mess of it.

 

At least, so Spock sincerely hopes.

 

 

~

 

 

The second time the security team panicked, and called for Acting Captain Spock’s assistance.  Because this mirror Captain seemed reckless and desperate enough to be almost superhuman.  

 

But when Spock toppled him backwards, and pinned him down… 

 

He stopped fighting.  

 

This time he didn’t try to kiss Spock on the mouth.

 

Instead he sought Spock’s hand with his own.  _Impossibly practiced fingers_ … 

 

Sending Spock flying backwards, as if he had been burned.

 

Luckily, by that time, the security team had managed to regroup, and had their phasers set for stun.

 

 

~

 

 

‘For christ’s sake,’ he says.  ‘ _Spock_.’

Spock is about to walk away from the isolation booth.  But finds, to his surprise, that he cannot.  

Something about the certainty in the stranger’s voice.  As if he knows -  

 

 _Knows Spock_.  

 

And knows - 

 

‘ _You belong at my side_ ,’ he says.  ‘Whatever damn universe we’re in.  _Spock_.’

 

Impossible though he knows it to be, Spock’s heart seems to have actually stopped _._

 

‘I fail to understand you.’

 

‘No,’ he says softly.  His eyes on Spock’s face.  ‘You don’t.’

 

Spock walks.

 

 

~

 

 

‘Mr Spock?’

‘Mr Sulu.’

‘It’s - the _mirror Captain_ , sir.  He wishes to speak with you.’

‘About what?’

‘He wouldn’t say, sir.  Only that it was important.’

‘I imagine,’ Spock says - aware that he is failing to keep the tension from his voice. ‘I imagine that, however important it is, he can communicate it to someone else.’

‘He said - ’ Sulu pauses.  Looking awkward.  ‘He said to tell you, sir, that it concerns _the needs of the one_.  That you would understand.’

 

Sulu has no reason to believe that his superior officer will look distressed.  Nevertheless, as Spock gets to his feet, Sulu avoids looking at his face.

 

And then Spock says, ‘Mr Sulu?’

And Sulu meets his eyes.

‘Mr Sulu,’ says Spock.  ‘This is a direct order.  If I ask you, or instruct you, to let him out of that room - _you will countermand me_.’

 

‘Understood.  Sir.’

 

 

~

 

 

Spock doesn’t have to enter the room.  He can see and hear the mirror Captain, through the transparent aluminium.

 

But _he has to enter the room_.

 

Has to face the monster within.

 

 

**~**

 

 

Spock has served with Starfleet for all his adult life.  And he meets the criteria that, for a surprisingly large number of twenty-third-century humanoid species, define _beautiful_.  As a result, though naturally reserved, he has had sexual relations with a number of non-Vulcans.  Not all of them female, and several of them human.

 

He has no desire, however, to extend his experience to a creature from another dimension.

 

Especially not when that creature resembles a bad dream of the Captain.

 

Looks like him, and smells like him - and _glows_ like him.

 

And is not him.

 

 

_~_

 

 

But when he sits down opposite it, and the creature looks at him - 

 

 _Eyes like broken glass_.  Cracked, green, dark.  

 

 _Jim_.

 

It is not Jim.  It is a swaggering, cunning thing.

 

And yet - 

 

_It is still the one._

 

‘You think that I’m a monster.’

‘Yes.’

‘But you _want_ me.’ 

‘Affirmative.’

‘ _So calm, Spock_.’

‘Vulcan emotions must be rationalised.  Otherwise - they break us.’

‘I _like it_ when they break you, Spock.’  A cheap, twisted grin.  ‘I like it when they break _us_.’  

 

It is hard to be rational.

 

Breathe, because you have to.

 

‘Tell me about your world.’

 

 

**~**

 

 

Sulu has never really worried about whether they’ve had sex.

 

From the day the mission started, it’s been clear that the Captain and his First Officer are mutually obsessed.  They stand too close, they touch too much, they play kiss-chase with their eyes.  But the _Enterprise_ is a flying beehive, constantly alive with tittle-tattle and intrigue.  You can’t keep up with all of it - and Sulu, being a laid-back soul, is not really one for gossip.    

 

But whatever goes on between them - they are clearly not _an item_.  There is no tongue-to-tongue in the transporter room.  No outward talk of _the one_.  

 

In the mirror universe, however - well.  _Clearly_.

 

He can see why Mr Spock would be confused.

 

And as for the real Captain, stranded in _that_ reality.

 

Well, he thinks.  _God knows_. 

 

 

**~**

 

 

‘You _assassinated_ _Captain Pike?_ ’

‘Of course.  You _helped me_ , Spock.  How else was I to rise up through the ranks?  To command the _Enterprise_?’

‘Why would I _help you_?’

‘Because I’m _the one_ , Spock.  My needs are paramount.’  He shakes his head at Spock, with a disturbing smile in his eyes.  ‘Seducing you was the best career move I ever made.  Better than stealing the _Tantalus Field_.’

‘I’m flattered.’

‘ _Don’t sound like that_.’  Unexpectedly, the monster reaches for his hand.  Spock draws it back.  ‘Don’t you understand?  You’re the only living creature I’ve ever trusted.  I belong to you.  Just as much as - ’  He stops.  Reading the look in Spock’s eyes.  Because he _can_ , it seems, read Spock’s eyes.

 

Some humans like to count to ten.  Spock calculates _Pi_ in his head, in a couple of seconds, to the hundredth decimal.  

 

‘What’s the _Tantalus Field_?’

 

 

~

 

 

On the mirror _Enterprise_ , _non-mirror_ Jim is taking a certain satisfaction in attempting to beat the living daylights out of a mirror version of his First Officer.

 

It’s been a long, confusing, and over-stimulating day - and Jim always finds that fisticuffs make him feel better.

 

It was mirror Spock who started it, anyway.   _I have the phaser_ , indeed.

 

Currently, though, he is starting to worry that the Vulcan will win.

 

Against all four of them.

 

 

~

 

 

Spock has been in a locked room with this man for two hours and fourteen minutes.  

 

He has learned a lot of things that he’s not sure he wanted to learn.

 

‘My people.  The Vulcans.  They are not a _logical_ race?’

‘The most violent creatures in the known universe.’

‘The teachings of Surak - ’

‘A delusional madman.  Tortured and destroyed.’

‘But _I_ \- ’

‘You have a human half.’

‘I helped you to _kill_ \- ’

‘You belong to me.  That’s what it _means_ , Spock.’

 

The monster has crossed the room to him.

 

And - _he smells like the Captain_.

 

The hands on Spock’s face are the Captain’s hands.  And the lips that brush his - 

 

Very gently, Spock puts his hands on the shoulders of this other Captain Kirk.  And holds him back.

 

‘Not to _you_ ,’ he says, quietly.  ‘You are not _my Captain_.  And I a not _your Spock_.’

 

 

~

 

 

‘Engineering,’ says mirror Spock.  ‘Reactivate main transporter circuits.’

 

It crosses Jim’s mind, fleetingly, that in this universe, too, his First Officer lets him stand too close.   And not just that.  This stranger’s eyes - they glance casually at his bare arms, in a way that almost _hurts_.  It occurs to him, not for the first time today, that perhaps -  

 

‘You’re a man of integrity in both universes, Mr Spock.’

‘You must return to your universe.  I must have my Captain back.’

 _His Captain_.

Of course.

 

In this brutal, back-stabbing world, mirror Spock has demonstrated a quite startling loyalty, to a mirror Jim who is clearly a cut-throat savage.  And he is _loyal_ , Jim thinks, with a queer knot in his stomach, because -  

 

Jim has made a number of intuitive leaps in the space of a moment.

 

And while Spock spent a total of two point five hours talking to the mirror Captain - 

 

Jim manages to say enough to alter _mirror history_ , in the next two minutes and ten seconds.

 

 

~

 

 

Interesting how quickly Jim grasps the point, while fighting for his life in a mirror universe.

 

When he has failed to get what has been staring him in the face, back on his own _Enterprise_ , for most of the past year.

 

 

~

 

 

When the _non-mirror_ landing crew materialise, Spock is ready and waiting.  And the Captain comes forward to greet him, with a face like a summer morning.    

 

Spock is quite improbably relieved when the Captain stops a whole ninety centimetres away, and does not try to kiss him.

 

 

~

 

 

‘Spock?’

It’s Doctor McCoy.

‘How can I help you, Doctor?’

‘I wanted to check that you’re alright.’

‘Naturally, Doctor.  Why would you suppose otherwise?’

 

The doctor sighs.  Concern is already beginning to give way to exasperation in his eyes.  

‘Simply, Mr Spock, because Sulu tells me that you spent quite a lot of time with the _mirror Captain_.  And that he had some… _interesting qualities_.’

Spock summons great depths of Vulcan discipline, in order to suppress even the merest twitch of his eyebrows.  ‘There were, certainly, some interesting differences.’

‘So I gather,’ says the doctor drily.  ‘And I always thought _this_ Jim was bad at keeping his hands to himself.’

 

It is fortunate that Vulcans are one of the only species in the known universe who can employ an _act of the will_ in order not to blush.

 

Nevertheless, Spock takes a few beats to compose himself.

 

And then he says, quite sincerely, ‘Doctor.  All I can tell you is that I have never been happier to have back - _my_ Captain.’

 

And, quite unexpectedly, the doctor smiles.  As widely as if Spock had just declared (did he?) his undying love.

 

‘Well,’ he says, indulgently.  ‘That’s alright then.’

 

 

~

 

 

Every universe, of course, is different.

 

But sixteen months and six days from now, Spock will discover that his Captain loves him back.  

 

Don’t tell him yet.

 

( _Jim_ hardly knows it yet.  He may be a master of intuitive leaps, but he doesn’t go in much for self-analysis.)

 

There are still a lot of muddles, and miseries, and extraordinary adventures, to be got through before that.

 

And _that_ will only be the start of it.

 

 

 

_The end_


End file.
